The Internet allows for vast amounts of information to be communicated over any number of interconnected networks, computers, and network devices. Typically, information or content is located at websites on one or more content servers, and a user can retrieve this content using a user agent, such as a web browser, running on a client device. For example, the user can input a webpage address into the web browser or access a web link, which sends requests to the server to access and provide to the user the content on the respective website. This type of communication is: commonly referred to as “web browsing.”
Web browsing is enjoyed by millions of users on the Internet. Because web browsing has become so widespread, many websites provide more complicated, enhanced visual effects and features. These enhanced qualities are generally directed towards a user viewing the website from a typical computer, such as a laptop, PC, etc.
Mobile web browsing has gained some traction because of the increased network speed, improved browsers, more powerful devices, and better pricing plans. But significant challenges still remain for Internet browsing on a mobile phone to become more popular among users. Some end user challenges include the frustration over long download times, the lack of accessibility, the lack of performance, and the lack of usability. For example, it may take over a minute for a full download of www.msn.com from a mobile phone on a typical network without multipart encoding. Accessibility challenges include the inability of WAP 2.0 browsers to render rich HTML content; the lack of plug in support for rich multi-media content; and the lack of support for DHTML websites. Performance challenges include the large latency in wireless networks, the discrepancies between uplink and downlink bandwidth, and TCP limitations. Along with the accessibility and performance issues, usability challenges can include, among other things, attempting to fit a large complicated page onto a small screen. In addition to these challenges to the user, website developers also face challenges such as the lack of standards for defining the device and the browsers capability, and the large test matrix of a myriad device and browser combinations. For mobile web browsing to become more readily operable for the user, these issues must be addressed.